


Foreign Affairs

by TwurtleEggy



Series: Ori, but a little to the left [8]
Category: Ori and the Blind Forest
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Healing, Ori's just confused, Other, Sein has no patience for their nonsense, Seir has no sense of personal space, bless him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23900713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwurtleEggy/pseuds/TwurtleEggy
Summary: Adventure awaits!
Relationships: Kuro & Her Kids (Ori and the Blind Forest), Kuro/Original Male Character (Ori and the Blind Forest), One-sided Seir/Ori (Ori and the Blind Forest), Sein/Ori (Ori and the Blind Forest)
Series: Ori, but a little to the left [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709002
Comments: 48
Kudos: 46





	1. Preparation and Arrival

"Sein!"

They looked down towards the clearing in front of the Spirit Tree. Among the many young spirits playing aimlessly, one spirit stood taller than the rest, and was running straight for the Spirit Tree. It was Ori, their only friend aside from the Spirit Tree himself.

Ori scrambled up the tree, standing right in front of Sein's perch and saluting. "I'm here!"

"And with plenty of time to spare," they said. Sein slipped out of there perch and floated up against Ori's chest. "I missed you."

Ori's near ever-present smile softened, and he hugged them. "I missed you too. Now!" He released them and clapped his hands together. "What the heck is so important that the two of you haven't been able to hang out with me for a whole week?"

"I'll take it from here," the Spirit Tree said. Thank goodness, they didn't know the first thing about politics. "Due to the decay in Niwen and the blindness a few years ago here in Nibel, various Spirit Trees from around the world have grown curious as to the apparent savior of both regions. As such, they have requested that you come to the next Spirit Festival."

"Spirit Festival?"

"It's like a holiday of sorts," he said. "Once every decade, all the Spirit Trees in the world send a few representatives to one of their lands, as a show of peace between them. It's being held in the land of Meril this year."

"Neat! So, when do I leave?"

"In three days." Sein said. "Also, I'm coming with you."

"Yes!" He hugged them again and spun in a circle, giggling like mad; Sein gave a surprised squeak while the Spirit Tree laughed.

"Calm down Ori!" they shouted. "It's still three days!"

"Okay, but I'm still excited!" He let them go and started bouncing up and down in place. "I'm gonna go home and tell Naru and Gumo, if that's okay?"

"Go ahead," the Spirit Tree laughed out. Ori jumped off of the tree and landed safely on the ground, before dashing away in the direction of Sparrow's Nest. "Even after all the pain he has gone through, he is still so joyful. I am so glad the cruelty of the world has not taken his hope from him."

"Yeah..." 

"Is something wrong?"

Sein floated around the perch for a while, humming softly. "I'm concerned. About who we're going to be bringing with us." They sighed and slid into their perch. "I still don't really trust them. Not after what they did to him."

"Perhaps." The Spirit Tree sighed. "Yet, you know that they will not do that again, yes?"

"Of course. I'm still worried."

The tree observed his friend. "You really do love him, don't you?"

"Shut up!"

* * *

"Kuro!"

"Ori! Sein!" The large owl hugged them both. "How are you? It's been so long!"

"It has been slightly over a week," Sein huffed.

Kuro scoffed. "Still too long."

"Stop arguiiiing," Ori whined. "Come on, are we going or not?"

"Slow down Ori, I need to make sure everything's in order first."

Shriek snorted from the corner of the nest. "You already did, mom. Five times." All of the owlets had already gone to Sparrow's nest to spend the night, Shriek only staying behind because she was too big for the cave, and didn't want to sleep in the open.

"Oh, hush young lady. You can never be too sure!"

"Amen," Sein said. "And don't argue Ori, you would have died a ton more if it weren't for me telling you to be cautious." The Spirit Guardian humphed and crossed his arms, muttering about time limits and whatnot.

"Alright, done!" Kuro walked over to the two and lowered herself down, letting him hop onto her neck. "Shriek, don't hesitate to go to Swallow's Nest if anything bad happens, okay?"

"Got it mom!"

Kuro took off with a large flap of her wings, lightly grabbed Sein in one talon, and started flying in the direction of Niwen. Ori looked down to her in confusion. "Wait, I thought the festival was in Meril? Why are we going to Niwen?"

"Ori, there can be more than one land in this direction," He blushed furiously as he realized his mistake. "We are going to Niwen first, though. We need to pick someone up there."

"Who?"

"You'll see." He grumbled, but didn't argue.

* * *

They approached Niwen's(quickly growing) Spirit Tree, and Ori saw the oddest thing he'd ever lain eyes upon.

Where Sein should have perched, there was instead what appeared to be some sort of Moki-Spirit Guardian hybrid, glowing a strong gold. Kuro landed on the edge of the tree, and Ori hopped off of her. He went to say something, but before he could get a word out the stranger slammed into him with a hug, sending him falling to the ground.

Close up, he could make out the stranger's appearance much better. They were ever so slightly shorter than him, and their tail and ears were shorter than usual. Their eyes were a deep brown, and _why were they so close to his face._

Their uncomfortable proximity to him was quickly ended, as Sein shot out of Kuro's talon and got in the stranger's face, causing them to back up. "Seir." Wait, _this was Seir?_ How!

"Sein." Okay, they sounded like Seir, knew who Sein was, and Sein was addressing them as Seir. Definitely Seir. "Could you move?"

"Could you please get off of me?" Sein and Seir both looked to Ori. "I'd like to be able to move."

They pouted but did as he said, allowing him to stand up before they wrapped him in a much less forceful hug. "I missed you!"

"Um, I missed you too?" They beamed at him, and he had the sneaking suspicion that he had misread something about the situation. They tried to push further into his chest, but Sein slipped in between the two before they could advance.

"Okay, we've got Seir now _let's go,"_ Sein snapped. Ori nodded and hopped back onto Kuro's lowered neck, shuffling over slightly. Seir followed suit, and got what Ori considered _far_ too close to him. Sein seemed to agree, as they floated up and into Seir's face. _"Back off from my boyfriend."_ Ori was incredibly aware of the sudden blush coating his face, and Seir seemed... almost angry. They did, however, shuffle slightly away from Ori.

Sein lingered for a moment, then went back down to Kuro's talon. The owl rolled her eyes, then rose into the air, and took off once more, northward.

* * *

The snow whipped past them, cold and vicious. Ori was _very_ thankful for how warm Kuro's feathers were.

Said owl suddenly slowed, and narrowed her eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"I hear something," the owl said. A dark shape shot out of the snow, and Ori's eyes widened. 

Kuro went into a nosedive, narrowly avoiding the shape. Their pursuer quickly turned around, and shot towards them again. "What in the world is that!" Sein shouted.

"Give me a second!" Kuro quickly reached the ground, then swiveled around and faced the rapidly approaching shape. "Halt!"

The shape slowed to a stop in nearly an instant, gliding down to the ground in front of the small group. "Jump off," Kuro muttered, releasing Sein. "This may get messy." Ori and Seir complied, sliding down Kuro's back and onto the cold snow.

The shape descended, landing in front of the group and revealing itself as a raven, about a head smaller than Kuro. "What business do you all have within this land?" they growled, taking a step forward. Ori prepared a light burst, and Sein and Seir both prepared Spirit Flames. "And you, owl. Who do you think you are, to try and order me around?"

Kuro was unfazed, and stepped forward herself. Her eyes began glowing a bright white, and she growled herself. "Stand down, Sheer."

The raven-Sheer-was seemingly stunned for a moment. They suddenly snapped out of their trance, and dipped into a deep bow. "M-My apologies Lady Nevermore, I am sorry for my lack of respect and accept any punishment you deem appropriate." Ori, Sein and Seir looked between each other confusedly. Lady Nevermore? Punishment? What was this mad bird talking about?

Kuro just sighed and shook her head. "Rise, Sheer." They did so, a deep blush covering their entire face. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, me and the others were asked to act as a sort of security detail for the Spirit Festival. I was just scouting."

Kuro tilted her head. "The others are here as well?"

"Yes, all four of us are here." She broke into a happy smile. "Well, all five of us now, I suppose!"

Kuro hummed, "And I suppose that you will want me to come and catch up with the four of you?"

"Of course!" The raven's blush darkened, "And, if you want-"

"No."

Their blush(somehow) darkened again. "Of-of course, I apologize for assuming."

Kuro grunted, and looked back to the other three, who were standing around awkwardly. "Ori, Sein, Seir, this is Sheer. She is an old friend of mine." They all exchanged quick greetings, and Kuro turned back to Sheer. "Would you escort us to the city?"

"Of course my Lady!"

* * *

"What is that?"

Shero looked up from the book he was reading. "What do you mean?"

"Look, there's something in the sky." He looked where his brother was pointing, seeing that there was indeed something in the sky. Two somethings, in fact. "Can you tell what it is?"

"Mmmm, probably just Sheer with some visitor."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

The two went back to what they were doing, unbothered by the possibility of yet another massive bird in the land.

A few minutes later, the door to their room burst open, and another spirit rushed in. "Shero, Wicker, get up! The spirit from Nibel is here!" Both their eyes widened, and they scrambled to follow the third spirit out of the room.

"Already? How!"

"He came here on _a freaking owl._ And for some reason, Sheer won't stop calling the owl 'Lady Nevermore'."

"Weird."

They arrived in the castle's main courtyard shortly after, arriving before the Spirit Tree. Already there were two spirits(one light blue and one golden), some sort of floating ball, Sheer, and the biggest owl any of them had ever seen.

"You three are late," the Spirit Tree boomed. "What has preoccupied you?"

"We, uh, didn't think he would be here so soon," Wicker said. The light blue spirit shifted with discomfort-that was probably the Nibel Spirit. They were blue, right?

The Spirit Tree sighed. "Very well. This is Ori, Sein, and Seir, the representatives of Nibel and Niwen." The light blue spirit waved slightly and gave a quiet 'hi', while the orb floated up and down and the golden spirit tilted their head. "Guide them to their rooms."

"Yes sir," they all said with a bow. The spirits and orb followed them into the castle and through the winding hallways.

Wicker turned toward Ori, grinning brightly. "So. You're the hero of Nibel and Niwen?"

"Um..." the spirit rubbed his arm, then shrugged. "I guess so? I don't really think what I did counts as 'heroic', but everyone keeps saying I'm the hero, so I guess I am?"

" _That's so cool."_ Wicker bounced up and down on his hooves. "And your, like, eighteen or something. How do you even do such cool stuff so young?"

"What?" Ori stopped walking. "I'm thirty."

The other spirits turned to him. "Nope," Shero said. "I refuse to believe you're thirty. I absolutely refuse to believe it."

"But I am!"

"Nope," Wicker said. "Nope. Your shorter than us, there's no way you're thirty."

"And how old are you?" Ori's face scrunched up. "Actually, who even _are_ you? And why do you all look so similar? We didn't get your names."

"Oh, um, right sorry," Wicker said. "We're all twenty four, and we look alike because we're triplets. I'm Wicker, this is Shero, and this is Piper."

"What are triplets?"

They all stared at him, and the orb sighed. "Ignore him, he was separated from Nibel's Spirit Tree at birth, so he didn't get a typical education."

Ori playfully glared at the orb. "Sein, are you saying I'm stupid?"

"No!" they squeaked. "You just... you know..."

"Oh, you're _absolutely_ calling him stupid Sein, stop trying to deny it." Seir had a sneer on their face, vicious and conniving. All three brothers narrowed their eyes at the golden spirit; something was definitely up here.

"Seir, don't be rude!" Ori's ears turned down, and Seir's expression turned absolutely mortified. "Why would you say something like that?" They whispered an apology, and Sein just hummed. Ori turned to the three brothers with a tired smile. "Can you guys just show us to our rooms? It's been a long trip..."

"Of course," Piper said.

* * *

"Why?"

Seir looked down at their feet. "I'm sorry..."

"That doesn't answer my question."

They whimpered quietly, and tried to move closer to Ori, but he just moved away. Sein floated over from where they were sitting in the corner of the room. "I've got some questions too. Namely, _how in the world do you have a body?"_

"Oh!" They looked up beaming. "I learned some shape shifting magic since the last time we met." She looked to Ori and did a little twirl. "Do you like it?"

He frowned and scrunched up his face. "I guess? It's impressive that you learned something that I can only assume is really complex in less than a year. I'm more concerned about other things, though." They frowned and looked down again. "Namely, why would you say that about Sein?"

They turned to Sein. "Why did you call him your boyfriend?"

"We're dating." they both said.

She frowned. "...Alright. I'm sorry for what I said, Sein-I thought you had been exaggerating or lying or something."

Ori's face scrunched again. "Why do you care whether we're dating or not?"

They looked at him intently for a few seconds. "Because _I_ want you. And I'm willing to fight for you if I have to."

"What do you mean you 'want me'?" Ori was confused, and he just wanted a straight answer out of them for once.

"They mean that they like you romantically," Sein chimed. "And they're willing to compete with others, including me, for your affection." Seir blushed hard, and nodded.

"...Oh."

"Anyways," Seir said. "I'm sorry for being rude. I'm gonna go to bed now. It's getting late."

"...Alright." Sein floated on to the table next to Ori's bed, and each spirit got in their separate beds for the night.

* * *

...Ori couldn't sleep.

He got out of his bed and quietly sneaked out of the room. He needed some fresh air, and he remembered the way back to the courtyard. As he neared it, though, he heard talking.

"I'm just shocked that you were just... sitting there for so long and we never even realized." Ori didn't recognize that voice, but it was definitely female.

"Good, that was the point." That was Kuro! He made to walk out into the courtyard, but froze as another voice spoke.

"We're being watched." That was Sheer. There was a shuffling of feathers, and Ori had the feeling that she knew where he was. "Right next to that door, one individual. Looks like a Spirit." Yeah, she knew where he was. He stepped out into the open, and was met with his second bizarre sight of the day.

Before him was the Spirit Tree, Kuro, Sheer, and three more birds. One was a crow, and held many similarities to Sheer, from pitch black feathers to being of similar height(though Sheer was slightly taller). Their eyes were notably different, however; while Sheer's were grey, the crow's were a harsh red, and seemed to stare straight through Ori's body and into his very soul; it was one of the most unnerving feelings he had ever experienced.

The second bird was various shades of brown, and appeared to be a hawk. They were in between Sheer and Kuro in height, and had yellow eyes. They watched him intently, and Ori had the intense feeling of danger, every part of him screaming to be wary of the hawk.

Finally was the oddest of them all-based off their body shape, Ori guessed that they were an eagle. Their feathers, however, were varying shades of red, yellow, and orange, a coloring he was quite certain eagles usually didn't have. They stood nearly as tall as Kuro, and were standing right next to her. 

"Ori," Kuro said, softness in her eyes. "Couldn't sleep?"

"No," he said. "Are these friends of yours?"

The hawk sneered. "We serve Mistress Nevermore."

"Okay," he said, irritation on his face as he turned to Kuro. "Why the heck did they call you Nevermore? And why did they just call you 'Mistress'?"

Kuro sighed, "I used to go by Nevermore, a very long time ago. As for why Spark just called me Mistress, it's because she's weird." The hawk chirped and bowed to Kuro. "For- Spark, get up." She rose, a blush on her face. "And yes Ori, these are old friends of mine. As I just said, that's Spark, and you already saw Sheer earlier," he waved to the raven, who nodded. "As for these two, the crow is Blight. He's a bit of a grump." Blight rolled his eyes, though he didn't object to her statement. "And this here," she wrapped one wing around the eagle, "is Phoenix. My _mate."_ The eagle muttered something at her declaration, and looked at the ground.

"...Huh. He's the owlet's dad?" The other birds aside from Phoenix looked to Kuro in shock.

"Yes, he is." Phoenix muttered something again, and tried to hide his face with his wings. "I didn't know you knew what that meant, Ori."

"I've been doing research." He thought for a moment, while the birds shuffled around. "Hey... Phoenix?" The eagle looked at him in curiosity. "If someone said they were willing to fight Kuro to be your mate, what would you do?"

He tilted his head. "I don't know, kid. Sorry."

"Ah, don't worry about it." He took yet another moment to think, then smirked mischievously. "Hey, Kuro?" The owl tited her head at him. "Do you think Phoenix is hot?"

All the assembled birds except for Phoenix burst out in laughter, while he blushed so hard not even his red feathers could hide it. "Yes, Ori." Kuro said. "I do think he's quite hot." Phoenix let out a mortified groan, and went back to trying to hide behind his wings.

"Nice." He smiled, then turned to walk back inside. "I'm gonna go back to bed. Night." 

They chorused goodnight, and Ori returned to the room, making sure not to wake anyone up as he slipped back into bed.

He was so confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caw  
> Credit to Ori asking Kuro if she thought Phoenix was "hot" goes entirely to Kupfermaske. I never would have thought of that joke on my own.


	2. Until the bitter end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ori attracts the attention of a couple of Meril's inhabitants.

Ori woke up to a knock at the door. He groaned but still got up. "One second."

He opened the door to reveal Piper standing there. "Good morning," he said. "The Spirit Tree asked me to make sure you three understand the layout of the castle. Are the other two up yet?"

"Yeah." Ori turned around to see Sein slowly rising from the table, and Seir stretching. 

"Good." Piper stepped to the side. "If you would follow me."

They walked out of the room and followed behind him. "The castle is split into two sections, west and east" he explained. "Over in the east section is the training hall, infirmary, barracks, stable, blacksmith, and various rooms for storage. Here in the west section is the kitchen, dining hall, and sleeping quarters. The courtyard with the Spirit Tree stands in the middle of the two sections. The dining hall is here," he pointed to a door next to them, then to one down the hall, "and that is the kitchen."

"This doesn't seem very hard to remember," Ori said. "It's just a big square."

"It's not hard to remember," Piper sighed, " the Spirit Tree is just being cautious. Now, are any of you hungry?"

"Me and Seir don't have to eat," Sein said, "and Ori's going to deny being hungry and say that he can't possibly accept your hospitality, and that he'll be just fine." Ori pouted. "In other words, he's hungry and won't admit it."

"This is harassment."

Piper chuckled. "Sounds more like an intervention to me. Come on, let's get you something to eat." 

They walked into the dining hall, which had various spirits mulling around in it. Sein and Seir sat at a table near the door, while Piper took Ori over to a counter which held several baskets, each filled with various fruits, vegetables, meats and nuts. There was one basket, however, which was filled to the brim with wooden bowls. Piper took two bowls out and handed one to Ori. They both filled up their bowls(Ori had mostly fruit, while Piper's was much more balanced), then went back to the table Sein and Seir were at and took a seat.

"So," Piper said, "how has Meril been so far?"

"It's nice," Seir hummed.

Ori swallowed a berry and smiled. "Very snowy."

"Yeah," Sein commented, "I can't wait to lose you in the snow only for you to end up killing some monster twenty times your size without a scratch and coming back the next day perfectly fine." Ori laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

Piper shook his head and chuckled. "You are a strange spirit, Ori of Nibel."

"Um... thanks?"

* * *

"This is the training hall."

The room was long, very, _very_ long. There were numerous large ropes on the floor, lain out in the forms of rectangles. There were spirits in some of the rectangles sparring with each other, though one spirit was standing off to the side. They had solid white fur like all of the other Meril spirits, and they stood about a head taller than Ori. When they saw the small group enter, they quickly rushed over. "Piper! What took you so long!"

"We are right on time, Selta. You're just impatient." 

The spirit just rolled their eyes. "Whatever," they turned to the rest of the group, "which of you is Ori?"

"Me?" Ori raised his hand. "Why, is something wrong?"

"Ori of Nibel, I, Selta of Meril challenge you to a duel!"

All of the other noise in the room stopped, as every single spirit that was sparring stopped and looked over to them. Sein and Seir shuffled back and forth uncomfortably at all the attention. Ori, however, was either unaffected or oblivious. "Oh, sure, I guess."

Selta cheered. "Great! Piper, you referee!"

Piper sighed and put his face in his hands. "Wait, you idiot. Ori," he motioned to Selta, "this, as you heard, is Selta. She's the strongest warrior in all of Meril, has never been beaten in combat, and once took out a fully grown corrupted owl on her own. Still sure you want to fight her?"

Ori tilted his head. "Yeah, I'm sure." 

"Then come on."

They walked over to one of the empty rectangles, and Selta rushed over to the far side, Ori walking into the near side. Sein, Seir and Piper stood outside of the rectangle, and were soon joined by all of the other spirits in the hall.

"First one to forfeit loses," Piper said. "Ready?" Both combatants nodded. "Fight!"

Selta ran forward and materialized a Spirit Edge, taking a quick swipe at Ori. He sidestepped it easily, and hopped over the follow up sweep, before dashing behind her. She spun around and lunged at him, but he sidestepped that as well. She growled, and took a few more swipes, all of which Ori easily dodged without retaliating at all. "You know, you're supposed to fight back!"

"I know." She did another horizontal sweep, and Ori jumped over it like he had the first time. She smirked and summoned a second Spirit Edge, stabbing out at where he dodged to, confident that he wouldn't be able to dodge. She gasped when he did exactly that, jumping off the air and flipping over the sword.

He giggled when he landed, and hopped backward. "Were you not expecting that?" She stabbed out with one sword, then swept the other sword where he dodged. He hopped over the sweep, then dashed in mid-air to avoid a stab. "You know, it's considered polite to answer when others ask you questions."

"Shut up!" she snarled, and clashed the two swords together. Blue sparks flew off of them, and her fur began to glow a soft white. She let out a war cry, and rushed Ori, moving much faster. Yet, even this wasn't enough as Ori continued to sidestep, dash, and hop around her attacks with ease. "HOLD STILL!" She did a vicious overhead swing.

"Okay." Ori caught the sword, shocking everyone in the room. He yanked it out of her hand and threw it to the other side of the rectangle. "You should calm down."

Selta stood motionless for a minute, then threw her sword onto the ground. "I forfeit."

"Ori of Nibel wins!" Piper shouted, smirking. Ori bowed to his opponent-who just looked at him blankly-and walked over to Sein and Seir, talking animatedly about the fight. "Well," Piper said, walking over to Selta, "what did you think?"

"...What in the world is up with that kid?"

"He's thirty."

_"What."_

* * *

Selta was curious. No, that wasn't quite the right word; she was borderline _obsessed._

Who in the world was this Ori? How was he so fast? Why had he not attacked once in their fight? _How had he caught her sword?_

She walked up to the Spirit Tree and sat down on one of the roots, pondering all of these questions and more, when the Spirit Tree spoke to her. "Is something the matter, Selta?"

"...What do you know about Ori? The spirit from Nibel?"

The tree was silent for a second. "I know he is famed for saving Nibel from blindness and Niwen from decay. I know he has many friends, including two catalysts and quite possibly the largest owl alive."

"...That's it?"

"I'm afraid so," the tree sighed. "If you wish to learn more about him, I would suggest talking to him yourself."

"Of course," she sighed. "Well then. Guess I'll be going."

"I wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you, sir." She walked back into the castle proper, and wandered through it until she found what she was looking for: the room the representatives from Nibel and Niwen were sharing. She knocked, and waited.

Instead of Ori answering the door as she had hoped, it was instead opened by a golden spirit-the representative of Niwen, if she remembered correctly. "Hello there. Do you know where Ori is?"

"You're here to ask him stuff about himself, yeah?" She nodded slowly. She didn't think she was that easy to read. "Don't worry, pretty much everyone has questions when they meet Ori for the first time." Well, that was reassuring. "Come on in."

She stepped in and found that the blue orb from before was also present. "I don't think I got either of your names?"

"Yeah, because you wanted to fight Ori too badly," the orb said. "My name is Sein, that's Seir. We already know your name."

Seir sat down on her bed facing Selta. "You want to know more about Ori, right?" She nodded. "Then let us tell you what we know."

* * *

"Whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwh-"

"Will you shut up?" the other spirit in Selta's room snapped. "I get that you're panicked, but this is just unnecessary."

_"He's immortal, Stela. He's freaking IMMORTAL."_

"And I understood that after the twentieth time you said it. Calm down, and use your head."

Selta took a deep breath in, and let it out. "Right. Right. Just need to stay calm and find out how to beat someone that has access to, like, half of the movement based abilities known to the light. Easy!"

Her sister rolled her eyes. "Look. The whole 'functional immortality' thing isn't even relevant in this situation. Focus on what he'll actually use. He doesn't have any strong close range offensive options, and he can't dodge forever. So long as you don't let him catch you by surprise again and keep up the pressure, you'll be fine. Just remember to be careful."

She let out a heavy breath. "Right. Thanks, sis."

"Always happy to help."

Selta looked around the empty room, then walked out the door. She had to be the strongest. For her.

* * *

Ori had thought that his stay in Meril would be relatively normal. But no, of course he just had to apparently anger their strongest warrior, and cause her to go so far as asking Sein and Seir about him. On his second day there. And then, that same night, she barged into the room he and his friends were staying in and demanded that he rematch her. Immediately.

His luck _sucked._

He didn't object, obviously. That would be rude, and he prided himself on his kindness. And thanks to that kindness, he was back in the rectangle, facing her at near midnight. Why.

"Ready?" she says, summoning both of her swords.

"Sure," he mutters, entering a fighting stance.

She immediately clashed her swords together, forming the same boost that she had used earlier that same day. This time, though, it was _much_ brighter, and Ori had a feeling that that meant it was stronger too. His suspicions were proven right as she shot at him fast enough that his sidestep wasn't quite fast enough, and she nicks him on his left side. He looked her in the eyes, and saw a crazed fury in them. So, that was how this was going to go.

Alright then.

She stabs, sidestep, hop on her sword when she goes for a sweep. She's expecting that and is already swinging up with the other sword. Unexpected, but manageable; jump over her, stomp to cancel his momentum and throw her back. She charges and stabs for his left side, obvious bait. Dash left, her overhead swing to where his right side would have been hits the ground instead. She charges again; either she's already too angry to focus, or she's trying to get him to lower his guard. Stab towards his left, back up. Sweep to his legs, back up. She lunges, he rolls under her and kicks at her stomach. Good hit, but she landed on her feet. 

She starts circling him; summon a light burst. She charges, he drops it and dashes backwards. She jumps over it, but that's okay; he dashes back over and punches her in the gut while she can't readjust. She doesn't flinch and goes for an overhead slash, back up. He's gotten on good hit and one decent hit, she's only nicked him. She _throws her sword what._

That's a second nick, this time to his cheek. Unfortunate, but she was _not down a weapon come on._ The thrown sword is gone, a new one in her hand replacing it. No reason to believe she could do that earlier today, and she couldn't have just learned an entire new technique in half a day. Something is up. She charges and goes for an overhead swing, he dodges left. The other sword is already coming at his head, so he slides onto his knees then dashes to get some space. She's breathing heavy; either tired or angry. Could be both.

She charges and lunges, back up _where is her other sword._ He hears the whistle and ducks; somehow, she swung it from behind him. Unless it wasn't her. He charge jumps, then looks down at the somehow floating sword. There's a faint white outline holding it; some sort of clone? No, it looks different from her, even if the details are hard to make out.

He's a sitting duck up here, so he stomps back down to try and make them back up. They're expecting it, though, and the outline throws its sword at him. It's not dead on, but it's close enough that he cancels the stomp. There's a large cut on his right side, and it _stings._ As he reaches the ground, Selta catches him by the neck.

"Give up."

He looks at her, and evaluates the state each of them is in. She's breathing hard, and the outline and boost have both disappeared. He's got a nick on his cheek and on his left side, and a bad cut on his right side. He can do this.

He swings his hooves forward, and charge jumps off of her. He goes flying back and skids on his back; that hurt. She looks worse though; he hopes he didn't break anything.

He gets up and walks over to where she slid to. She's laying on the ground, unarmed. She's not moving, but she is breathing and blinking. "I lost," she mutters.

"You did."

She looks at him, and he extends his hand. She takes it, and he hauls her to her feet, each of them slinging an arm around the other. They're about to reach the door to the training hall when it suddenly swings open, several spirits on the other side, with Piper at the front. "Who's in th-Ori? Selta? What in the world, are you two okay?"

He smiles, and passes out.

* * *

"Who was that?"

They're both sitting in the infirmary the next morning. Three days in, and he's already had to make himself familiar with this place, because of course his luck is just that bad.

"What do you mean?"

"The outline," he says. "Who was it?"

"My sister, Stela. We used to work together, when we were younger. She got fatally wounded on a hunt, and she told me to absorb the Ancestral Tree she left behind. So I did." She shook her head. "Her ability was just the Spirit Edge. I don't know why I got the other stuff."

"Were you close?"

She chuckled. "Best friends."

He hummed. "Maybe it's her light trying to protect you."

"Maybe."

They sit in silence until a healer comes in. Ori's wounds have all been healed, so he's free to go. Selta's not so lucky; his charge jump broke five of her ribs, and bones take longer to heal, so she has to stay another night. "Lucky you," she says.

He supposes so. As he's about to leave, she says his name.

"Once I'm out of here, I want a rematch. One last fight, then I'll leave you alone."

He thinks about it for a moment. She has so much hope, so much belief that, if she only does things a little different, she can be good enough to beat him.

He can only pray that her hope doesn't destroy her. "Sure."

* * *

Five days since they got to Meril. Most of the representatives have arrived; they're only waiting for a couple more groups.

He's spent the time getting ready. He's done some asking around, along with a bit of deduction and help from Sein. He knows what's going on now. Selta's afraid. Afraid of letting down someone that's not even there anymore, afraid of failing to protect others again, afraid of not doing her sister's life justice. She's afraid, and she'll be afraid until the end of her life.

Unless, of course, someone does something.

They're both here; Ori on one end, Selta on the other. It's late again-they both want as little attention as possible. They're not here to entertain, or to improve. She's here to see who's stronger. He's here to save her from herself.

"Ready?" Same start as before.

"Sure." The ending will be the same as well.

She activates the boost, and charges. Stab to his front left, he ducks forward to the right so the outline's overhead swing to his back misses too. She wants to end this fast; she's realized that he has more stamina. He can't play around. He can help her, and he's going to.

They each do overhead swings to each of his sides. He focuses, and catches them both, then pulls. Both lose their grip, and he knows they're going to dissolve the swords, but that takes time. The outline might be hazy and seem non-solid, but he knows it must be made of something. He takes both swords and dashes straight for it, plunging both straight into its head. He twists his wrists and flicks up.

There's silence. The outline fades, and Selta is standing there, her swords half formed. She drops them and they dissipate. He catches her right as she's about to fall to her knees, and lets her cry until morning.

"She's gone." It's the first thing she says. "She's really gone."

"She is."

"...have you ever dealt with someone you care about dying before?" He remembers Kwolok, and he nods. Time means nothing; bonds can be made in mere minutes. "Does it ever get easier?"

"Yes. But only if you can move on."

"But what if I forget her?"

He hugs her tighter. "You won't. I promise."

* * *

They meet again later that day, in the room he's staying in. He's on his bed, Selta's on Seir's. They've both taken naps, and they're both looking much better.

"Six days since you got here," she muses. "Festival starts proper tomorrow. You think you're ready?"

"I know I'm ready. After all, I have my friends to help me." She laughs.

"You know, I'm not the only one that's gonna want to fight you." He snorts; the five challenges he's gotten from other representatives has made him quite aware of that. "You better beat everyone you fight."

"Of course I will." He smirks. "After all, I'm the hero of Nibel and Niwen. How can I lose?" She laughs, and he's just happy she's focusing on things other than fighting.

"Yeah, right! I totally could have beaten you the second time. I just got overconfident." They both know it's a lie. Overconfidence wasn't her undoing; fear was.

"Whatever." The door opens, and Sein and Seir come into the room and look at them.

"Ori," Sein says. _"How the heck did this whole thing take you five days."_

Selta is snickering. "Busteeeed."

He smirks. "Kicking butt and helping this dork solve her awful mental problems was harder than I thought it would be." Selta squeaks and is suddenly throwing out denials.

Sein just sighs. "Of course it was." They sit on his lap, and he takes to rubbing their top. Seir and Selta are talking about something or other. He's just happy that they seem to be getting along. Maybe they can be friends.

That would be nice. So would plenty of other things, he thinks, but he knows that it's not reasonable to expect to get everything he wants. Sometimes, you just have to let go. No point in holding onto bad memories until the bitter end.

The door opens again, and this time it's Piper. He sees Selta and waves. "Hey. You okay?"

She nods. "Yeah," she gets up and hugs him, "thanks for always being by my side."

"Um... you're welcome?" He hugs back, and Ori comes to a conclusion.

It doesn't matter what happens during the festival proper. This trip was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the fight scenes were good.


	3. Festivities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The festival begins, and Ori's opponents learn a lesson in not underestimating your enemy.

Once again, Ori was woken by a knock at the door. "One second."

He got up and walked to the door, opening it to reveal Piper. "Good morning, Ori. Are you ready for the festivities?"

"Mmmm, yeah, I guess. Just give me a second to wake the others up." Piper nodded, and Ori went about waking up Sein and Seir.

"Why do we have to wake up so early?" Seir complained. "We're not the ones fighting."

"It's a matter of appearances," Piper said. "My apologies."

"It's not your fault."

"Still."

Once all four of them were up, they had a quick breakfast, then they were brought before the Spirit Tree. "I have brought them as you requested, sir," Piper said.

"Excellent. You are dismissed." Piper bowed, then reentered the castle proper. "Sein, Seir, I understand that you have business with Pine?" Seir nodded, and Sein hummed. Sein simply floated up to the top of the tree, while Seir closed her eyes. Her body began to glow pure gold, before seeming to fall in on itself and take their usual ball shape, which they used to float up to the same place as Sein.

"Who's Pine?" Ori hadn't heard that name before.

"Pine is the catalyst of Meril. Sein and Seir came here to talk to them." He nodded, that made sense. "You understand why you are here, correct?"

He sighed, and looked at the ropes on the ground, which were arranged into a familiar rectangle. "Yeah, yeah. I don't get why no one believes that I saved Nibel and Niwen. I mean, Sein and Seir are living proof that I did."

"They are confused-they do not understand how a single spirit could save an entire land, never mind two lands."

"I wasn't alone. Sein and Seir each helped me plenty."

"I am aware, as are the other Spirit Trees and your fellow spirits. Many simply believe that Sein and Seir did most of the work. You are here to prove otherwise."

"Right, I guess that makes sense. Thank you sir."

"Think nothing of it," he chuckled. "Now, I would get ready if I were you. The fights start soon."

* * *

The first day of festivities was now properly beginning, in the form of Ori's first opponent.

"For a hero, you don't look so tough!" The other spirit was dark red, almost two heads taller than Ori, and obviously trying to get on his nerves. Idiot.

"You don't look like you've ever eaten a vegetable in your life." The other spirit scowled, and Ori knew he'd won the battle of wits. Now to win the actual battle.

Wicker stood as referee. "First to forfeit or fall unconscious loses. Ready?" Ori and the other spirit both nodded. "Begin!"

He materialized a hammer, and Ori knew he had already won. He ran up to the red spirit, and right as they swung, he dashed. The swing completely missed, and Ori jumped onto the other spirit's back, then charge jumped off of him. Ori went flying into the air, and the red spirit was sent slamming into the ground. He tried to get up, but Ori just stomped down on him, knocking the spirit out.

He walked off of the unconscious spirit and looked at the large crowd, who had been largely stunned into silence. "Please tell me one of you is going to be more of a challenge."

* * *

Ori watched the current fight from afar intently. It was Selta versus some overly brutish spirit who held a hammer similar to Ori's first opponent. Why did anyone think hammers were effective weapons?

"Hello." He turned around, and saw another spirit. Their fur and light were a deep blue, and they had extremely short ears. They were also about half a head taller than him. He was the shortest one here, wasn't he?

"Can I help you?"

"You're Ori, right?"

He smiled kindly. "Yes, I am." Was this his next opponent?

"I am Fise of Aquanta, your next opponent. That was quite the spectacle you made."

He shrugged. "Hammers are just a really bad weapon."

The blue spirit chuckled and turned his attention to the fight. "I must say, though, you've given away far too much about yourself in a single fight." What was that supposed to mean?

His eyes narrowed. "Would you care to elaborate?"

The spirit smirked. "Of course. I'm sure you're aware that spirits are born with one ability, such as stomp or charge jump, yes?" He nodded; where was this going? "You are also aware that a spirit can absorb light from Ancestral Trees to gain new abilities, but that absorbing light from more than one Ancestral Tree is often disastrous to a spirit's health, yes?" He nodded again. "Well, you used three abilities: dash, charge jump, and stomp."

"So?"

"So, you seem to be in perfect health, yet you must have absorbed light from at least two Ancestral Trees. That leads me to believe that you have an underdeveloped light."

"Yeah, you'd be right about that."

Fise narrowed his eyes. "...I wonder, just how underdeveloped is your light? Can you even summon any light constructs? Just how many Ancestral Trees have you absorbed light from? How did-"

"A lot, yes, and eight. Well, eight that I can use."

Fise stared at him. "You're just... going to give away so much information about yourself? So casually?"

"Sure, why not?" He smirked. "I'm still gonna beat all of you."

Fise glared at him. "...We will see, Ori of Nibel. We will see." He walked back into the crowd.

Ori just hummed and looked back to the fight. Selta was standing over her opponent, who had forfeit. How nice.

* * *

Ori walked onto the battlefield, Fise approaching opposite him. "Ori of Nibel," the deep blue spirit said, "you are overconfident in your own abilities. I will defeat you."

"Neat speech," he grinned wide. "Now prove it."

"Ready?" Two nods. "Begin!"

Fise dashed towards him and summoned a spear, throwing a poke towards his stomach. Easy sidestep, grab the spear and pull. It was ripped out of Fise's hands, and Ori threw it behind him. He dashed at the Aquantian, who was summoning another spear, and swung weakly for his face. Fise leaned back a bit, and Ori took the moment of instability to spin and kick him in the side. The deep blue spirit inhaled sharply, and the spear he was summoning dissipated. A punch to the stunned spirit's face, and he fell to the ground. Ori stepped onto his opponent's chest, and summoned a light burst. Fise growled, then groaned. "I forfeit."

Ori stepped off and dispelled the light burst, looking into the crowd again. Some of the spirits were beginning to look almost nervous. They were starting to realize that he wasn't just some child with a couple of powerful friends and good luck. He was an actual fighter.

* * *

Ori stood behind the crowd again, waiting for his next match while he watched Selta easily beat some poor green-furred spirit. He felt kind of bad for the guy; he seemed legitimately nice. He noticed a spirit suddenly pop out of the crowd and look around for a bit, before seeing Ori and walking towards him. The spirit was the same green as Selta's current victim, and he could see that they seemed to have two tails, and were actually just about as tall as him. Cool.

"Hi there," he greeted, "I assume you're my next opponent?"

"Yes, I am. My name is Sprun." A spirit of few words, it seemed. That was fine.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sprun of Nowhere." 

The spirit giggled at his half-baked comedy. "Ah, I apologize, I'm not used to these more... formal events. I hail from Netra."

"Is it a nice place?"

"Quite, though I have to take care of my siblings too often to fully appreciate it."

"Siblings?"

They chuckled and patted their chest. "Oldest of five daughters."

He blinked. "You're a girl?"

She blinked back then laughed. "You don't know much about spirit anatomy, do you?"

"Not really."

"That's a shame. I will see you on the battlefield, Ori of Nibel. I'm looking forward to beating you."

He grinned. "I was thinking the same thing."

* * *

"Ready?" Two nods. "Begin!"

Neither combatant moved, though they did both tense at first. They just glared at each other for a few seconds, before Ori suddenly felt a creeping dread climb up his back. Sidestep right, that was a knife. The Sprun on the far side of the battlefield had disappeared, and seemingly reappeared behind him. Could be teleportation, but he was willing to bet on some sort of illusion instead. The probably fake Spurn was motionless, and he strained his ears. Something behind him, whistling towards his neck. Duck, kick her in the stomach, it's not an illusion. Relying on hearing would be irritating, but not impossible. He just had to make sure she was constantly making noise. 

Throw a punch, it goes right through her and the illusion fades. Spin around, she's completely gone. Noise to his right, but it sounds like a flutter, not a whistle; duck, knife from the left, he kicks at the bottom of her leg and the illusion fades. Is she faking sounds too in an attempt to tire him out? He realizes that an area attack would work great. Jump, then stomp down, and she shimmers into sight. He could just keep stomping over and over, but that would just be cheap. He dashes forward and bashes upward off of her, then stomps onto her stomach before hopping off of her. "I forfeit," she weakly groaned. Ori reached down to her and pulled her up when she accepted his hand. "You are a worthy opponent, Ori of Nibel."

"You too!" He shook her hand and they both walked into the crowd, letting the next competitors take the field.

* * *

Sprun appeared at the top of the Spirit Tree, brushing herself off. Seir looked at her and snickered. "Have fun?"

"Yes, actually." Sprun glowed green, and a deep green orb came out of her back.

"Ugh... that will never get easier." Sprun sat down next to Sein while the orb slid into its perch. "Still, that _was_ fun. How is he so strong?"

"Oh, you haven't seen the half of it," Sein said exasperatedly. "He can drag around stone blocks three times his size like it's nothing."

"No wonder you like him so much." Sein squeaked, and rammed into the green spirit, who just laughed.

"Stop fighting children," Pine said from within their perch. "The festivities are not yet over."

"But fighting _is_ the festivities!"

"Shut up Seir."

* * *

Three down, he counted, two to go. Things were getting harder, but the challenge was nice. As much as he loved Nibel, there was no one really around as strong as him, so he was concerned he would get rusty from lack of practice.

Based off of what had happened so far, he was willing to bet that his next opponent would show up to introduce themself. Unfortunately, he had no such luck, and instead was graced with a rather irritating presence. "Ori of Nibel."

He turned around, and standing there was a spirit. And to be frank, even though he had only just seen them, and had heard one sentence from them, he already hated them. There was this aura of 'I'm better than you' practically radiating off of them, and he wanted to rip it out. Unfortunately, he had to stay civil. "Can I help you?"

"I assume you are going to make it to the last round." Was that a question? Was it a compliment? An insult? He couldn't tell. "When you do, I am going to crush you." Alright, a threat it is.

"Do I know you?" he said through clenched teeth.

"I am Phar of Niles."

He sneered. "Well, 'Phar of Niles', I wish you luck with that." They scoffed and turned around, walking away from him.

"Yeah," he muttered, "run away. Jerk."

* * *

"Ori!"

"Selta!" His grin widened. "Ready to lose?"

She scoffed and summoned her swords. "Why are you talking to yourself?"

"Ready?" Two excited nods. "Begin!"

Sidestep the sword throw, duck under the sweep. Dash forward, sweep at her legs, she jumps, throw a light burst, she deflects it. She's summoned a new sword, and she lunges for him with it. He goes to grab it, then jumps back as the other sword comes in for a sweep. She throws a sword again, he bashes it back, she dodges. He throws a light burst, she deflects it, he catches it and throws it again, this time closer. It hits, and he goes for a stomp, but she hops back and only gets hit by the very edges of the shock wave. 

She runs for him, and swings both swords downward. He catches both _and she kicks him in the stomach ow._ A swing towards his neck, and he ducks underneath. A swing towards his legs and he dashes away, but she knew he would do that, so he barely has any time to bash away the sword she throws. He rushes forward, and dodges her remaining sword when she tries to throw it at him. He's too close for her to safely summon a sword, so she has to resort to brawling, something he knows a sword fighter won't be too good at. Left hook, she blocks but she blocks too low and he can see her flinch. Right hook, she makes the same mistake again. She tries to jump away, but he dashes above her and stomps her into the ground. She rolls away before he can land a punch, and manages to make a sword. Stab, sidestep, she flinches and overextends, punch to the face and she's down on the floor, sword dissipating. She sighs, "I forfeit."

She accepts his outreached hand, and he drags her to her feet. "Why the heck are you so strong? Like, seriously, it's unnatural."

"Lots of climbing. And I mean _lots."_

She groans. "I think I'm just gonna stick to getting better with swords."

"Fair enough."

They walk to one wall of the courtyard, which has a slightly raised hill in front of it, which has a great view of the battlefield. Ori ignores it, even though he knows he's going to fight the winner. Selta turns to him with a confused look. "Don't you wanna know what kind of foe you're fighting?"

He shrugs. "Never knew what sort of foe I was gonna end up fighting when I went adventuring. No one's here to see someone that has an idea of what they're going up against next; they're here to see an adventurer. And it doesn't matter who wins."

He smirks. "I'm gonna show them one heck of an adventure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I add more detail to the character descriptions?  
> Also I swear on my honor there will be actual character interactions next chapter, I just wanted Ori to kick butt.


	4. End of the Beginning, Beginning of the fun!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final fight, and the true festivities can begin!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ori loses his crap, because those adventures were traumatizing and did weird things to his head and you know it. Then he parties!

Ori looks at Phar from the other side of the battlefield. Both of them are glaring at each other, and every single spirit in the castle is watching. This is it, the final fight. All Ori has to do is beat this one guy, and then they can get to partying and having fun.

"Ready?" Phar sneers and nods. Ori relaxes his hands and nods. "Begin!"

Phar materializes a bow and starts taking shots, all of which Ori easily sidesteps. The spirit growls and rushes Ori, faster than anyone else had before during his stay in Meril. Selta managed to nick him at slower speeds, but he hadn't been prepared then. Here, he wasn't Ori the happy-go-lucky spirit who just happened to be a really good fighter. Here, he was Ori, the adventurer who saved both Nibel and Niwen. These spirits wanted to see what his adventures were like, and he was going to show them.

He sidesteps Phar's punch, and responds by shoving a light burst into the taller spirit's face. Follow up with a right hook, stop right as Phar blocks and grab their arm instead. Pull them towards him and headbutt them as hard as he can. Repeat two more times until Phar finally manages to break out of his grip. The spirit is bleeding, and Ori knows he's not. He might not know his foe, but he does know himself. Phar stumbles a bit, and _there's the look._ The one he saw so often on the creatures of decay when they realized just what they were fighting.

He snarls and dashes forward, using Phar's shock to his advantage. He gets off one punch to the gut and one to the face before Phar actually starts blocking. One punch to the arm, aim for the most fragile part and enjoy their hiss of pain. Another to the other arm, repeat steps two and three. Phar tries to back up, but Ori's having none of that nonsense. He bashes the idiot into the ground, then stomps down. They roll out of the way at the last second and get launched a few feet. Phar is starting to look panicked, and Ori's full teeth smile probably isn't helping.

Phar gets in a defensive position, and really? They're _losing,_ why would they get in a defensive position? Fight, run, or die; that's the rule of the wild. If they can't understand that on their own, he'd just have to teach them. Dash forward, slide under the garbage right hook, kick them in the stomach. Hop up, uppercut. Right hook, jab them in the stomach a few times, and then another kick to the gut to finish it up. Why is this idiot still standing? The moron should just forfeit already. Ori growls, and they suddenly back up, fear on their face. "I-I forfeit!" Good riddance.

He takes a few deep breaths, and feels himself slowly relax. That was harder than he thought it would be. He needed a nap.

* * *

"Ori?"

He groaned and covered his ears, mumbling random nonsense under his breath. "Ori, get up you dork."

"Don't wanna."

"I know, but you have to. Well, you don't _have_ to, but you should." Of course.

He sighs and sits up, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. Sein settles on his lap, and he starts rubbing their top. "Did you see me fight?"

"Of course I saw you fight," they said, "and I was just as worried as I was every other time you started acting like that. You know, you didn't have to fight that guy if he was getting on your nerves so bad."

"I know, but he just-he had this sort of feel to him, like," he waved his hands in the air a bit, "like, 'oh, I'm so much better than you, there's no way you're actually a hero or a fighter or tough at all' and I couldn't stand it."

"Going back to bad habits won't make you feel better, Ori."

"I know." He sighed and went back to rubbing their top, a soft smile on his face. "Thank you for helping me so much Sein. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Probably trip over your own legs a lot more." He giggled and hugged them. 

"You two done?" They looked up to see Piper at the door. "The main festivities are going to start soon. I'd recommend you come, if you're not too tired to come join us all. Seir said they'd bring you some cake if you are."

Sein snorted. "That's the worst attempt at flirting I've ever heard of."

Ori tilted his head. "But no one in Nibel ever flirts with anyone?"

"Turna practices in the woods when he thinks no one is listening."

"Sein, are you stalking Turna?"

"No, Shriek overheard him once and told me."

He hummed happily. "Well, I'm glad you two are getting along." Piper cleared his throat. "Oh sorry! Um... well, I feel fine. Sein?"

"Ori, you're the one that was fighting. I'm fine." They floated out of his lap, and he hopped off the bed. Piper exited the room and they followed him. He brought them into the dining hall. Many of the tables previously within had been moved to the side, so that there was a large empty space in the middle where several spirits were now dancing.

Piper scratched his chin. "Ori, do you know how to dance?"

"Yeah, actually. Sein taught me how." Piper looked at him incredulously. "There was a lot of interpretation. Still, I swear I can dance."

"He actually can," Sein chirped. "We dance together all the time."

"Yes, but you don't have feet for him to trip over."

"That's... fair. Darn it."

"Well," Ori interjected, "if it turns out I don't actually know how to dance, you can just teach me Piper."

The Merilien spirit stumbled, then coughed. "Wh-while I appreciate that you trust me that much, I think it might be better for Seir to teach you how. After all, they know you better."

Sein buzzed quietly, and Ori pulled them towards his chest. "Only if Sein is okay with it. I don't want to seem rude."

They stopped buzzing and just hummed. "I guess it would probably be for the best. But if they try anything funny or make you uncomfortable, remember that you're not obligated to dance with them." 

"I know, don't worry." He giggled and poked them lightly. "You know Sein, you sound a little jealous."

"That's because I am jealous." Ori and Piper looked at them blankly. "Can't solve a problem if I refuse to acknowledge that it exists." They both just shrugged and the trio kept moving to one of the tables along the sides of the room, which had some food and drinks on it, along with some spirits loitering about. Among said spirits was Selta and Seir, who were talking about Selta's sister.

"Yeah, she was great. I think you would have liked her, she was just as excitable as you are."

"I'm not _that_ excitable."

"You really are," Sein said. The spirit and faux-spirit turned towards their voice, and Seir's eyes lit up when she saw Ori.

"Ori!" They hugged him hard, and the light blue spirit wheezed slightly. "I missed you!"

"First of all," he said once he regained his breath, "it has been less than ten hours since you last saw me. Second of all, you just proved Selta and Sein right." They pouted, and the other spirits and catalyst all laughed. "And third of all, please let me go. This is making me uncomfortable."

They reluctantly let him go. "I just wanna hug you..."

"I know, but you were hugging me too tightly." She smirked and hugged him again, lighter this time. "Not what I meant, Sein please don't kill either of us."

"Oh, I don't know," they teased, "smiting you both might be fun."

Ori rolled his eyes. "Sein, if you try to smite us I'm breaking up with you." Seir's ears twitched.

"Smite us Sein. Do it do it do it do it do-" Selta put a paw over their mouth, and shushed them.

Piper rolled his eyes. "Seir, do you intend to act like this the entire festival?"

"If it gets Ori to date me, then yes." Said spirit blushed and pulled them off of him, moving over to Sein. Seir pouted, but didn't move to follow him, and instead accepted a cup of berry juice from Selta. "Awww..."

"So," Sein began, turning toward Ori, "wanna dance?"

He grinned, "Sure!" The two walked over to the middle of the floor and did their little lonely dance of just swaying side to side while walking in a small circle facing each other. That was pretty much the basics of plenty of dances, so this counted as a dance to them.

"How were the fights?"

"Fine," he chirped. "First two were really easy, but Sprun and Selta were really fun to fight. I've never seen a spirit that can make illusions."

"That's because you've barely seen any fully grown spirits." He giggled and blushed.

"You got me there. Say, what were you and Seir talking with Pine about?"

They remembered Pine suddenly appearing from out of Sprun's back, and briefly wondered whether they should tell Ori about that... nah. "It was mostly just catching up, making sure nothing bad had happened to each other. We don't leave our homelands much, and we don't have any long range methods of communication."

"Do you ever get lonely?"

"Of course not," they said. "I have you."

He blushed harder. "Thank you Sein." he whispered. They were silent for a while, just two dorks enjoying the time they got to spend with each other. Selta managed to drag Seir into dancing with her, and Piper still stood off to the side, having been joined by his brothers. Many other spirits were dancing, laughing, eating and drinking, and just having a good time. Ori looked at Selta and Seir, and suddenly realized something. "Sein?"

"Yes, Ori?"

"Why do you like me?"

The orb hummed for a few seconds, their light slightly dimming and brightening. "Because you're so nice. You try so hard to save everyone that needs saving-you even saved me."

"Is that it?"

They chuckled. "No, it's... just the only part I know how to put into words." He snorted. "Actually, no. You're also really cute." He blushed and put his face in his hands. "It's true."

"Alright, but you don't have to say it..."

"I absolutely do. If no one compliments you, you're never going to accept how great you are."

His blush worsened, and he walked back over to the side of the room, Sein following him. "I'm being serious. You really need to have more self-"

He spun around and hugged them against his chest. "Thank you Sein. Thank you so, so much."

"You're welcome, Ori. Now when was the last time you ate?" He laughed sheepishly and went to get some food.

* * *

"Soooo."

"So?" Seir asked. "So what?"

"You got any hobbies? Any interests?" 

"Selta, you already know the answer to that question."

"Ori and trying to get him to date you doesn't count."

"Then nothing." Selta rolled her eyes.

"Come on, there must be _something!_ Do you like looking at bugs, fish, _clouds,_ _anything?"_

"Selta," she started. "Please understand that most of my life is spent sitting at the top of a tree. Not much interesting happens."

"So you just have no interests other than getting Ori to date you?"

"Nope."

Selta sighed. "You are impossible." She grinned sneakily. "For the rest of you lot's stay, you and I are going to hang out and try to find _something_ you can be interested in other than Ori's-"

_"Do not finish that sentence."_

* * *

Wicker handed a cup to Ori. "Drink."

He looked into the cup and sniffed, his nose scrunching up. "It doesn't smell too good..."

Shero scoffed. "Drink it, coward."

Ori shook his head and downed the drink. Bitter. "There, happy?"

"Very."

"What are you three doing?" Piper asked, walking over from one of the other tables. "I don't have to be the responsible one as usual, do I?"

Wicker smiled sneakily. "Not yet!" Piper narrowed his eyes and looked at the empty cup in Ori's hands. Wicker followed his eyes and smiled wider. "Don't worry, we're just introducing Ori to the wonders of alcohol!"

Piper sighed. "So I _do_ have to be the responsible one?" He blinked. "Wait, Ori, you've never had alcohol before?"

He shook his head. "No, I haven't. Is this one of those things that I'm supposed to know or have done by now?"

"Yes Ori, you should probably have had alcohol by thirty."

"Well, I haven't, so there."

Piper rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You two," he pointed at his brothers, "what type of alcohol did you give him?"

Shero smiled. "The strongest we could find."

Piper groaned and pinched his nose. _"Great."_ He turned to Sein, who had been floating there silently the whole time. "And you have no problem with these idiots getting your boyfriend drunk?"

Ori blinked. "Oh, I can't get drunk." The triplets looked at him blankly. "Something about my..." he turned to Sein.

"Physiology."

"Right, my physiology. Something about it makes it pretty much impossible for me to get drunk."

"...Seriously?" Ori nodded, and Sein hummed. Shero threw his hands in the air. "Great. There goes my plans for tonight."

"Yeah, same," Wicker said, sipping at his own cup of probably-not-as-strong alcohol. "That's so weird though. I didn't even know that was a thing."

Piper sighed and looked at Ori and Sein. "I'm so sorry for them."

Sein just laughed. "We've met weirder."

"That is _not_ reassuring."

* * *

Kuro ruffled her feathers slightly, her children(including Shriek) wrapped up in her wings. This was nice. Shame the others were obligated to stay in Meril; she wanted Phoenix to meet his kids.

She looked down to them, an idea popping into her head. Actually...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't take this chapter as advice on how to dance. Please.


	5. Birds of a feather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BIRBS

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost," Kuro said. "Just a little farther." Tok groaned in impatience.

"Are you sure about this?" Shriek said from on her back with the owlets. "They're not going to freak out or get angry because of me, are they?"

"Shriek, I can guarantee that they're going to love you. Trust me." The owl calmed slightly, but she was still rather nervous.

They approached the castle, and Kuro could see all four of her fellows below, staring up at her. She set down onto the ground, and all four bowed to her. She rolled her eyes-were they ever going to stop doing that? "Rise."

"Lady Nevermore," Blight said, "We had not been expecting you for a couple more days." He looked at Shriek and the owlets, who were hopping off of Kuro's back. "Who are they?"

"Hi!" Ku chirped. "I'm Ku, and these are my siblings, and Kuro's our mom!" She tilted her head. "Are you our dad? Why did you call mom Lady Nevermore? Why are-"

"Please calm down." Ku went silent. "No, I'm not your dad." He pointed at Phoenix with his wing. "I'm pretty sure he is."

The fire bird took a step back, but Ku just looked at Blight in confusion. "But... he doesn't look like us. And you do. So how is he our dad and you're not?"

Blight scoffed. "Beats me, probably because Phoenix is ugly"

"Do not teach my children to be rude to others, Blight." The crow nodded and apologized. "Ku, sweetie, he's telling the truth. Phoenix, stop backing up and come meet your kids." The fire bird looked down in shame, but perked up a little when the four owlets ran up to him and started squeaking questions at him as quickly as they could. "Well, while he's preoccupied," Kuro pulled Shriek closer to her and turned to the other three birds, "this is Shriek. She's adopted."

"Hello," she said nervously.

"Are you okay?" Spark took a step forward and looked at Shriek's wings. "Those are your wings, right? Are they okay? You're not injured, are you?" Shriek blinked, then laughed.

"Yes, I'm-well I'm not fine, but I was a lot worse. I'm getting a lot better." Kuro smiled softly and rubbed Shriek's back with her wing. She looked at Phoenix, who seemed to be getting overwhelmed by the owlets' questions. "Say," she said, louder than necessary, "isn't _Ori_ supposed to be here?"

"Ori's here?" Ku asked. "Where? Where!" Phoenix sighed in relief as the owlets' attention was drawn away from him, and he gave Shriek a thankful glance, which she nodded to.

"Right over there," Sheer pointed towards a section of the wall. "Don't try and go through the wall though." The owlets thanked her and rushed off to harass their honorary cousin.

"I thought you wanted me to talk with them..." Phoenix muttered as he walked over to Kuro. Her only response was a laugh and to nuzzle against him.

"Hi there," Shriek said, getting his attention. "My name's Shriek. I'm adopted."

"...Are you okay?" He leaned close to her stone covered wings in alarm. "Is this supposed to be some sort of bandage or something? You're not malnourished are you? You're safe, right? Are-"

"Please stop." Phoenix backed up and blushed, embarrassed that he had let himself get carried away. "I'm... alright. These aren't bandages, I'm not malnourished, and I am safe."

"Then why are your wings covered in stone?"

She shuffled nervously, looking to Kuro. She nodded slightly and rubbed her back again. "I... was born heavily corrupted by Decay. I only managed to get out of its grasp recently, thanks to Kuro and Ori's help." The four large birds looked to her in shock. "I'm sorry, was that too mu-"

Phoenix wrapped her up in a hug of his own, quieting her. "I'm so sorry for what you must have gone through," he said. "I can heal your wings if you want?"

"I-No thank you," she laughed. "I really appreciate the offer, but I don't think it'll really help me get better." He nodded and hummed, and Kuro wrapped her free wing around him, putting all three of them in one big group hug.

* * *

"Ori!"

"Ku, Tengma, Tok, Turna!"

For once, the Spirit Guardian had been allowed to wake up on his own, though the peace of the morning had been foiled when Piper had, as usual, knocked on the door. It wasn't for anything important though-he just wanted to hang out. Selta had eventually come around as well, apparently having some sort of plan that had to do with Seir. Both of them had been at least semi-expected. He hadn't, however, expected for Ku, Tok, Turna and Tengma to show up all of a sudden.

"And then we met our dad!" Ku said. "He's big and red and orange and yellow and his name is Phoenix and then Shriek said you were here and then another big bird told us where you were here and then we came here and now we're here!"

"What." Piper said. "Did you just switch topics mid-sentence?"

"Do you want me to repeat myself?"

"No."

"Then why did you ask!" Ori laughed at her antics and hugged her.

"Because you're confusing, Ku!" She squeaked indignantly and tried to escape his grasp, but failed miserably. "Oh, you're still so little cousin!"

"Cousin?" Piper, Selta and Seir looked to him like he was insane. "Ori," Selta said, "I hate to break this to you..."

"I know we're not literally cousins, come on you guys!" They didn't look too convinced. "I know I'm not too smart, but I'm not stupid!"

"You're plenty smart!" Sein said, plopping onto his head. "Being oblivious doesn't make you not smart!"

"Yeah!" Seir said, making to move towards him. Before they could get anywhere, though, Selta picked them up and threw them over her shoulder. "Oh come on..."

"Well, we'll be going now," she said. "Plenty to see, plenty to do. Later!" They all said goodbye to the two as Selta carried Seir out of the room. All of them except Tengma, that is.

"I'm following them!" the owlet exclaimed, before rushing out after them.

"...Well that was weird." Piper said.

Tok shrugged. "Yeah, Tengma's kind of weird. But hey, what's your name!"

"Ah, I am Piper."

"Nice to meet you Pipr!"

"No, it's-you know what, never mind."

Ori laughed at Tok's poor pronunciation, and Ku used his distraction as an opportunity to pop out of his grasp, and run out of the door as quickly as she could. "No! Ku, come back and let me hug you!" He dashed out the door in pursuit of his cousin, Sein following behind him.

"...So," Turna said, looking to Piper and Tok, "wanna do something?"

"...Sure," Piper replied with a shrug. "Let's go get my idiot brothers first."

* * *

Tengma followed behind Selta and Seir while the former carried the latter. "Where are we going?"

"A hill."

"To do what?"

Selta hummed. "I'll tell you if you tell me more about yourself."

"Alright, what do you wanna know?"

"Well for one, how old are you? You're way smaller than Kuro, but you're taller than Ori."

Tengma laughed. "Everyone other than Ku is taller than Ori, silly. And me and my idiotic brothers are all nineteen, but Ku's only five." Selta looked to her in disbelief. "Apparently there were a lot of really bad complications with her egg, like she wasn't growing remotely as fast as she was supposed to, the egg was too small and the shell was way too thin, just a ton of really bad stuff. Then there was the whole mess with Nibel's blindness too. Still, our mom never gave up on her, and neither did we. She ended up being born smaller than most owlets, and she's got a really badly deformed wing, and it hurts her a lot sometimes."

"Is that why her one wing is so short?"

"Yeah, it is. Now tell me why we're going to some random hill!"

Selta laughed, "alright, alright. We're going to a hill so we can hopefully find something for Seir to like instead of just obsessing over Ori."

The golden faux-spirit stuck their tongue out. "I am not _obsessed_ with Ori. I just really like him."

Tengma tilted her head. "Do you like anything other than Ori?"

"...I like cake."

"You're obsessed." They stuck their tongue out again at the owlet.

"And who asked you? You've been staring at Selta's butt this whole time!" The female spirit turned around with an amused grin to find that the owlet seemed completely unashamed at being caught.

"So?"

Selta burst out in laughter. "Yeah Seir, why don't you stare at my butt too? Maybe you can get obsessed with it instead of Ori!" Seir blushed fiercely and looked away from the two. 

"You're both horrible..."

"Yeah, we know. Oh hey, we're here!" Selta put Seir down and the faux-spirit pretended to brush herself off. Tengma looked around the hill they were on, just outside of the castle. There was a lone, massive pine tree on it, and she could see the sprawling fields and pine forest that surrounded the castle, which were filled with spirits playing and going about their days. Some spirits were climbing on the pine tree, mostly either playing or trying to find some place to rest. Selta stood towards the edge of the hilltop and looked around the field before them. "Tell me if you see anything interesting."

"Bet you they'll just stare at all the spirits and they'll somehow manage to just become even more obsessed with Ori."

Selta's face scrunched up. "...crap."

* * *

"Mom! Dad! Help!"

Kuro turned to one of the entrances to the courtyard as Ku popped into view. Just as she did, Ori dashed into sight, grabbing hold of his cousin again. "I got you!"

"MOM DAD HELP HE WON'T LET GO OF ME!"

There was a mischievous glint in Kuro's eyes, and Phoenix gulped. "Well, since I've been saving her from the wrath of Ori's hugs for five years, I think it's your turn, dear."

He sighed but didn't object, walking over to Ori and Ku, and easily plucking the owlet out of her cousin's grasp. "Thanks dad!"

"You're welcome Ku..." he sighed and brought her back over to Kuro, but she rose into the air before he could give her to her.

"Nope. Spend some time with your daughters. Spark, Sheer, Blight, Ori, come with me. And Sein too, I guess." The orb 'nyeh'ed at the owl, but she just ignored them. Spark picked up Ori, and they all left the castle.

"What are they going to do?" Shriek asked.

Phoenix put Ku on the ground. "Hunt or something." He sighed, but straightened up and smiled softly. "So. You kids have any hobbies?"

"Adventuring!" Ku shouted. "Though... mom won't let me anymore. And I'm not very good at it..."

He looked to his daughter in confusion. "Why won't she let you go on adventures? And what makes you think you're not good at them?"

She shifted uncomfortably around a bit. "Promise you won't freak out?"

"Of course."

She sighed, a much more tired sigh than he thought someone her age should ever be making. "Some... stuff happened about a year ago. Ori and I went on an adventure, and I got really hurt. I almost died."

He rubbed the top of her head with his beak. "Well, maybe I can teach you some ways to stay safer on adventures. Then, your mom won't be as scared of losing you." He chuckled. "Well, she won't be less scared of losing you, but she'll definitely have less of a reason to stop you."

"Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Actually," his eyes narrowed, "how did you get hurt?" He noticed both her and Shriek tense up.

"...I hurt her," Shriek whispered, and his eyes widened.

"It wasn't your fault!" Ku shouted. "The nasty decay stuff was doing mean things to your head!"

"I know," she whispered, "but I'm still the one who hurt you."

"No you're not." Phoenix said, startling them both. "It might have been your body, and it might have been _partially_ your mind, but I guarantee it was almost entirely decay. That stuff is a parasite, latching onto all of your fears and insecurities and general negative emotions, and using them to try and control you. If you can admit now that what you did was wrong, then it was certainly all the decay's fault."

"...Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," he said softly. "Just know that everyone is hear for you, okay?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I know... thanks dad." He flinched. "I'm sor-"

"No, it's not your fault," he chuckled, wrapping one wing around her. "I'm just getting used to this whole... 'dad' thing." He looked down to Ku. "Now. Why don't you think you're any good at adventures?"

She raised one of her wings, flinching as she did so. He noticed it was much smaller, and-was it bent? "My wing is messed up. Apparently, it's never gonna get better. Sometimes it really really hurts."

"How bad?" he whispered.

"Sometimes I can't fall asleep at night because of it."

He stared at the wing, wide eyed. "Ku... do you want me to heal your wing?"

* * *

"MAMAMAMAMAMAMA-"

"Ku, calm down!" Kuro laughed. "What's got you so riled up?"

"PAPA FIXED MY WING!"

Kuro blinked in shock as Ku presented her wing. Sure enough, it was no longer deformed, and only really looked to be a little shorter than usual. "I-well then!"

"Kuro, did you forget I could heal others?" Phoenix asked.

"Of course not!" She refuted. "I just thought Ku's would be too serious!" 

"Apparently not!" He laughed. "She should still not be flying yet-the wing's still tender, so it's important for her not to overexert herself until it fully sets."

"Still, I _knew_ there was a reason I helped you so long ago," she said, nuzzling his cheek. "Aside from your good looks, of course." He blushed hard, and Ku pretend gagged.

"Mama, that's gross!"

"Oh, Ku, one day you'll meet someone you like and you'll be acting the same way!" 

"Ew, no!"

"This is so unnerving," Sheer muttered to Blight. "I've never seen them act domestic before."

"I think," the crow grumbled, "that you're just jealous." The raven squawked at him and started chasing him around.

Spark shook her head, "get back her and stop messing around before someone gets hurt you morons!"

Sein looked down to their boyfriend, who was holding some wild berries he had collected. "Wanna go back to the room?"

"Yeah. Hey, do you think there are any Spirit Wells around here?" The two descended into casual conversation as they returned to their room.

* * *

"What the heck?"

There was a massive stack of bowls in the middle of the room, which Tok popped out from behind. "Go away Ori, this is our room now."

"Help!" Piper shouted from the corner, where he and Turna had been tied up in bedsheets.

"As you can see," Shero said, standing up from behind the bowl pile, "we have hostages."

Ori stared at Turna, then looked at the two behind the bowl stack. "I'm telling Kuro."

"WAIT!" They all shouted as Wicker burst out from behind the bowls, but it was too late. Ori was already dashing down the hall.

They were doomed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe 'indignantly' is a real word. It doesn't look real.  
> Also, that's not how real owl births work, but nothing in the world of Ori works how it does in real life, so I feel like the daughter of some sort of super-owl could take fourteen years to hatch if their egg was messed up enough and got exposed to some murder-light. Not that they would come out fine, mind you, but still.


	6. Interlude: Limitations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do we give up in life?

"Hey mister Spirit Tree?" He looked at the Spirit Guardian sitting at the base of his trunk.

"Yes, Ori?"

"What did you give up when you became the Spirit Tree?"

"...Elaborate."

"Like, can you still see? Can you still talk with those you love? Does it ever get annoying not being able to move? Just stuff like that."

He hummed and thought for a moment. "I can still see. You see my roots, yes?" He nods. "Imagine that each tip is the end of a spider's thread. These tips connect to each other through my light, to make a sort of web. I can see everything within that web."

"Do you're roots go far?"

He laughed. "My roots go very, very far Ori. They stretch beyond this castle, into the fields beyond. Additionally, while Pine is within their perch, I can choose to see either what is within the web my roots make, or to see what they see."

"That sounds nice."

"It is. As for talking with those I love... I am afraid that all those I love have long since passed. Yet when they lived, I could still speak with them just as if I was still a Spirit Guardian." He thought for a moment. Back to... then. "Well, all but one of them."

"Who?"

"My love, a spirit named Kytas. He lived in the land of Niles, though I assure you he acted nothing like Phar. He unfortunately had to stay in Niles, so we were unable to talk."

"Why didn't he just come here?"

He hesitated. "When I first became the Spirit Tree, things here were... different. Spirit Trees are meant to hold the best interests of the land they protect, yet in my day, that ideology was taken much too far. If Kytas were to come here and our love were to be discovered, he would have been cast out at best, and executed at worst."

Ori's eyes widened. "Would-would that still happen today?"

"No, no. The spirits of today are much more relaxed, and would be much more welcoming to Kytas, were he still alive."

"That's good."

"It is, and I have Pine to thank for it."

"Not entirely," they said, voice echoing down to Ori. "You were the one to bring the issue to my attention, and I'm certain that you still could have achieved similar results without me."

"Perhaps, but the spirits' trust in your wisdom made it go along much faster my friend."

"I suppose so," they muttered. "Still."

"Very well. Now, back to the topic. Not being able to move is rather irritating, but I believe that that is an issue which depends entirely on the spirit."

"What about the spirits of Meril? Are they your kids?"

"Many of them are, though some are of foreign descent, being the children of both one of my children and a foreign spirit. Still, I am proud of and care for them all the same."

"Can you do anything with your light?"

"Of course," he said. "When someone says that Pine is my will or Sein is the will of Nibel's Spirit Tree, they don't mean that they control our will, or that we are some sorts of prisoners within our own bodies. The light of these lands are still ours; beings like Pine and Sein simply help us to get that light to the land."

Ori hummed a quiet tune. "Thank you mister Spirit Tree."

"Please, call me Popel."

* * *

"Kuro?" The owl looked down to Ori, who was standing in the snow looking up at her. "I have some questions about your friends."

She sat down and hummed. "Well, ask away."

"You gave them their powers, right?"

She frowned. "Yes, I did."

"Did... did you have those powers, then lose them once you gave them those powers?"

She blinked once then laughed. "Oh, heavens no, Ori! Do I look like I could heal someone?"

He giggled. "Appearances can be deceiving, Kuro."

"True, true," she clicked her tongue. "But no, I did not have those powers. I simply took their greatest wants, and turned them into power. And I gave them longer lifespans too, but that's besides the point."

He tilted his head in confusion. "Greatest wants?"

She grinned. This was always a fun story. "Phoenix wished to heal, so I gave him the gift of healing. Additionally, though fire is a source of destruction, it also serves to bring nutrients to the world. For all it takes, it will give just as much."

"Spark wished to protect others, and to keep them safe. To her I gave the lightning to destroy those that wished others harm, and unrivaled speed to pull others from danger."

"Sheer wished to fight by my side, so I made her the greatest hunter imaginable. Speed that only Spark and I can best, along with the ability to see the heat other creatures create. She is inescapable."

"Blight wished for one thing, and one thing alone: to never be deceived again, a wish I was more than happy to grant. As such, he can see through all illusions, so his senses can not be fooled, and he can tell when someone is lying, so his mind can never be tricked."

"And giving them those powers didn't take anything from you?"

Kuro grinned, and Ori could practically feel strength radiating from her. "I am the goddess of judgement Ori. To give strength to those deserving of it takes little more than a flap of my wings."

* * *

"Hey Sein?"

They turned to their boyfriend. "Yes, Ori?"

"What can you do?"

They settled onto his lap. Comfy. "What do you mean?"

"Like-why do you work with the Spirit Tree? What does working with the Spirit Tree give to you? And what does him working with you give to him?"

"Oh, that's easy! Catalysts-what me, Seir and Pine are-are actually really fragile, since we're pretty much only magic with nothing physical to protect us. The Spirit Trees are usually really well protected, so we stick around them to stay safe. As for what the Spirit Trees get out of working with us, we can increase the power of other creatures' magic. So, we let the Spirit Trees' lights reach the entirety of the areas they protect with less strain to themselves." They tilted slightly. "Didn't I already tell you that?"

"I'm... not sure. Maybe you meant to but you forgot?"

"Maybe."

* * *

Ori knew the limits of others. He knew why they did what they did, and he knew what they gave up in the pursuit of bringing others happiness. Sometimes they gave up a lot, sometimes a little. Sometimes they didn't even truly give anything up, and they instead helped others, and received help from others in turn.

Ori knew his own limits too. He knew what he wanted in life, and just how much of his own personal desires he was willing to give up to make others happy. He knew just how far he was willing to push and pull, and just what he was afraid of.

Sometimes though, knowing your fears won't stop them from finding you.

* * *

He woke up drenched, gasping for air he didn't realize he could get. "S-Se-Sei-"

They're already against his chest, soothing him as best as they can and lightly pushing him back against the bed. "It's okay Ori. It was just a nightmare. You're safe. You're okay."

"No," he said, "no, we-we have to get out, the water's going-it's going to-"

They shushed him. "Calm down Ori. You're safe. Everything's going to be alright.

"Is it?" He asked. "It doesn't feel like it."

"It is," they soothed, "and I'll make sure of it, alright?"

"...alright. Thank you, Sein."

"Don't worry about it, Ori. Get some rest."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any questions, feel free to ask them!


	7. Dawn of the final day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the guests leave, and the Merilians are left to return to normal life-or at least as normal as life gets when you've been visited by Ori.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moonstruck Blossom is such a good song.

"You're coming with us."

Phoenix looked at Kuro. "What do you mean?"

"You're coming back to Nibel with us." She said.

He blinked. "Do... do I get a say in this?"

"No."

"..."

She sighed. "Really? You need to spend more time with your kids. They barely know you."

"I know, I know," he squirmed, "but... what if I'm not good enough?"

"Phoe, dear."

"Seriously, Nevie, I don't know _how_ to be a dad. I don't want to mess it up for them."

"You're not going to," she soothed. "You think I knew how to be a mother when they were first born?"

"Well, you always do great at everything!"

"No, I don't," she said. "I've messed up plenty of times trying to raise them."

"You've still succeeded!"

"But I could be doing better," she retorted. "And I know that you can help me do better."

He shifted from talon to talon. "I still have to help the others..."

"They'll be fine. They can take care of themselves."

"It's not them I'm worried about."

"I know that, and I know that if anything bad happens, I can get you and myself to wherever it's happening in time."

He looked her in the eyes. "...You're sure?"

"More sure than I am about most things nowadays," she laughed.

"...Alright." He rolled his eyes. "Guess I won't try to fight you over this."

Kuro scoffed. "If I remember correctly, last time we fought ended with you floundering in a lake."

"N-Nevie!"

* * *

Selta hugged Ori tight. "I'm going to miss you."

The short spirit hugged back. "Me too. But hey, we can always visit!"

"Not really," Sein said. "I highly doubt that Kuro's going to be willing to just drop whatever she's doing and bring us here."

"We can always come alone!"

Seir looked at him with a soft smile. "Ori, you _do_ realize that there's an ocean between hear and Nibel, right?" The Spirit Guardian blushed and rubbed the back of his head. Evidently, he did not realize that. "You're so cute!"

Sein hovered up into their face. "Nope." They stuck their tongue out at the floating orb. "Stop doing that!"

"No!"

"Don't fight!" Ori shouted, and the two quieted down.

"Whiiiipped," Selta whispered, earning herself a glare and what she guessed was supposed to be a glare. "You know I'm right."

"Stop fiiiightiiiing," Ori whined, "it's not niiiice."

"You know," Piper grumbled from the corner, "sometimes I question if you're actually thirty."

"Why does no one believe me!"

"You're shorter than me!" the male spirit shouted.

"You're just tall!"

"STOP SHOUTING!" They all jumped and turned to the door where Ku stood. "Hi."

Ori rushed to hug his little cousin, but Piper grabbed him before he could. "I assume you're here to pick up this moron and the other two?" The owlet nodded, and Piper let Ori go, almost sending him barreling into her. He managed to stop at the last moment though, and gave her a much lighter hug, mindful of her still tender wing.

"Ku!" He ruffled the feathers on her head. "What's up?"

"Mom says it's time to goooooo," the owlet replied, "and she asked me to get you guys. So, are you ready are you ready are you read-"

"Yes, Ku," he said with a sad smile, "we are ready."

"Then _come on!"_

* * *

Ori bowed to the Spirit Tree. "Thank you for allowing us to stay here, sir."

"No trouble at all," he rumbled. "Know that you are welcomed in this land; all of you." Ori and Seir both nodded, before climbing up onto Kuro's neck alongside Shriek and Ku.

"Everyone set?" the owl asked, receiving conformations from all of her passengers. She looked over to Phoenix, who was carrying Tok, Turna, Tengma and Sein. At her look, he nodded to her; everyone was ready. "Let's go!"

She took off into the air, Phoenix following right behind her. They both turned southward, and started flying off towards Nibel.

"Well," Pine said, "they're finally gone."

"You say that like it's a good thing."

"It's not!" they panicked. "It's just an observation!"

The Spirit Tree hummed playfully. "Oh, I don't know. You sounded quite happy that they're gone."

"Shut up!"

* * *

Selta looked around her room. It was... actually kind of barren, and not in a minimalist sort of way. Did she really own so little stuff? 

"I don't even have a lantern..." she muttered. "How do I not even have a single lantern?"

"Because you've been suffering from a severe lack of self-esteem for literal years?" She looked at her bed, where her sister was laying down.

"...I thought I let go of you."

"You did. And to be honest, I'm very glad you did; it was _way_ too cramped in your head."

"...How are you still here?"

She clicked her tongue. "Come on sis, you're smart! You can figure it out on your own."

She made a face. "I understand literally nothing about what is going on right now."

Stela rolled her eyes and sighed. "Of _course_ you don't. Alright, short version is that what was haunting you wasn't actually me, but was instead your misplaced guilty conscious. You managed to relieve yourself of that-even if it took freaking forever-and that leaves room for me to be present. I've been sort of kicking around in your mind ever since you absorbed my Ancestral Tree."

"Well, why are you only showing up now? Why haven't you appeared once since I let go of my guilt?"

Stela grinned. "Look at the room again. Doesn't it feel like something's missing? Something physical?"

She narrowed her eyes and looked around. Desk, check. Beds, check. Chest full of stuff she hoarded-wait. Where was it? "Found it didn't ya?" She turned to her sister, who's grin had grown. "That stupid chest you have isn't here."

"...Why not?"

"You only got it after I died," she said. "Look out the window." She did as told and-wait, wasn't it midday? Why was the sky so dark? And what was up with that weird white glow?

She turned back to her sister. "What's going on? Where are we?"

"Can't you see? This isn't actually our room; it's a _memory_ of our room." Her grin turned into a smirk. "You're dreaming, Selta. And it's time to wake up."

* * *

"Selta!"

She woke up with a gasp to Piper shaking her. "Are you okay? Why were you asleep?"

"Nap." she muttered. "I was tired."

"Alright, well, why the heck were you not waking up when I tried shaking you?"

"...Piper, can you keep a secret?" He nodded slowly. "I just had the weirdest dream of my life."

"Weirder than that one where you were riding on a fluorescent pink salamander swimming through the clouds?"

"Yeah, weirder than that one." He looked at her skeptically. "Dude, I just saw my sister again. Like, not a product of my guilt sister, my _actual sister."_

He blinked and scratched his chin. "Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that being a side-effect of absorbing an Ancestral Tree."

"Of course it would be." She sighed and rolled onto her stomach. "Hey, since Ori absorbed a bunch of Ancestral Trees, do you think he saw all of the spirits whose light he absorbed?"

"I hope not," he chuckled. "That sounds like it would be really annoying."

She stared out her window. "Yeah..."

"You okay?"

"No," she said. "Not really."

He sat down on her bed next to her. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"...Yeah."

* * *

Shero looked out his window as Kuro and Phoenix flew away. "Well. There they go."

"There they go indeed," Wicker muttered, looking into his cup.

"What's in there?"

"Alcohol."

Shero squinted. "It's _noon."_

"So?"

_"Why are you drinking at noon?"_

"Because I can," he said, taking a sip from the cup.

"And Piper says _I'm_ the irresponsible one."

"He says we're _both_ irresponsible," he grinned cheekily and pushed his cup to his brother. "And he's right."

Shero looked at the cup for a few seconds, then shrugged and took a drink from it. "I'm gonna miss those idiots."

"Yeah, me too." Wicker took the cup back and started tapping the rim. "That Seir one was kinda cute."

Shero scoffed. "Are you kidding? _Ori_ was the cute one."

"Well, yeah, but I'm confident that he could bench both of us."

"Fair," he said. A moment later he grinned. "Nah, you'd weigh us down too much."

Wicker scoffed, and threw the cup at his brother, soaking him in the alcohol and sending him into a laughing fit. "Jerk!"

* * *

"Why does he get to go with her?" Sheer whined. "It's not fair."

"Shut up you fool," Blight grumbled. "Just because you're unable to get a date doesn't mean we all need to hear you whine about it." Sheer squawked indignantly, swiping her wing at his head and landing a soft blow.

"Stop fighting you two!" Spark shouted. "Sheer, Phoenix went with Lady Nevermore because she wants him to actually spend some time with his kids. Blight, don't be a hypocrite!" The raven lowered her head and snickered while Blight ruffled his feathers and tilted his head up.

"Like you're one to talk! You've failed so many times you don't even try anymore!"

"Hey!" They all looked up at Sprun, who was glaring at them from the top of the Spirit Tree. "Keep it down! No one wants to hear about how pathetically in love with Kuro you three are!"

"...Didn't your fellows already leave?" Blight questioned.

"Yeah, but I'm staying at Pine's request."

Spark smirked. "Good on them for deviating from the norm."

"The norm?"

"Of which spirit they want to be with!" Sprun blushed and ducked back into the branches of the Spirit Tree, the laughter of the three birds still managing to echo up to her.

"I assure you," Pine said nervously, "that is not the only reason I asked you to stay."

"Only?"

They squeaked, having not noticed their slip up. "Can we not talk about this?"

"Yeah, yeah let's not." She inhaled. "You're sure my sisters will be fine?"

"Of course. Line owes me, and they always repay their debts." She didn't look very convinced. "Look, you can always write to them if you want. And you're not a prisoner here-you're free to leave at any time."

"I-right. Thank you." They only hummed. "So... practicing my illusions."

"Yes, yes. First of all..."


	8. Return to home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Home is where those you love are. Wait that's what the saying means isn't it?

Seir stood in front of the Spirit Tree. "So, I guess this is bye for now?"

"We'll visit," Sein assured. "But yes, it is." Seir frowned and looked at the ground.

Ori smiled softly and hugged them. "Don't be upset! Like Sein said, we'll visit; and beside, you're not alone! You've got all the Moki to keep you company."

"I know," they said, hugging him back. "But I don't want the Moki to keep me company. I want _you_ to keep me company!"

"Well, I have to go back to my family."

They pouted and hugged him tighter. "Why can't they just come here?" Ori chuckled.

"Seir, I'm not gonna ask my family to just up and move to an entirely different land. Besides, Sein's needed in Nibel."

Their pout started turning angry. "And what's so special about them? What can they give you that I can't?"

Ori made to back up a bit, but they held tight. "Seir..."

"I can give you so much more than them! I-I can hug you! I can kiss you! I can actually show you affection! They can't do any of that!"

"That doesn't matter to me," he said to them, as Sein floated closer to him.

"Then what does!"

He looked at them for a moment, while they breathed heavily. "I don't really know."

They blinked, and looked at him in confusion. "What-what do you mean?"

"I don't understand romance," he explained. "But I know that there's something I feel for Sein that I just don't feel for you. It's... something warm. Something that makes me happier when I'm around them than when I'm around anyone else. I don't understand what it is, but if I ever do, I'll tell you."

They were silent for a moment, their breathing slowly leveling out. "O-Okay. Okay." They pouted again. "I'm holding you to that, alright?"

He smiled. "Alright." The two hugged again, and Ori and Sein turned away from the Spirit Tree, walking up a hill to where Kuro and Phoenix stood waiting.

* * *

"Ori!"

"Mama!" The Spirit Guardian jumped off Kuro's head and into the waiting arms of his adoptive mother. "I missed you so much!" he squealed.

"I missed you too sweetie!" She looked up to Kuro. "Thank you so much for bringing him back safely."

"No worries," the owl said. "Now if you'll excuse us, we still need to drop off Sein and the kids. See you in an hour or two?"

"Wait!" They all turned to Ori. "How about the kids stay here for tonight? You and Phoenix haven't seen each other in so long, don't you want to have some time to not need to worry about your kids?"

Phoenix gulped and spluttered at the spirit's words. "Actually, I think-"

"That's a _wonderful_ idea Ori!" Kuro declared, smiling viciously. "What do you think, kids?" She was met by a chorus of cheers and a single 'sure' from Shriek. "Naru?"

"Of course!" She said. "It would be wonderful to have them over again," she smirked slyly, "and you and your friendhere clearly need to catch up!" Phoenix just shut his mouth, not wanting to risk making a fool of himself.

"Okay!" Sein squeaked, liberating themself from the fire bird's talon. "Seeing as everyone else is apparently going to stay here, I guess I am as well." Ori squealed with happiness, wrapping the ball in a hug. "I do have to go back to the Spirit Tree though." Ori's ears dipped and he looked down sadly. "Oh, come on Ori! We just spent over a week together, I have responsibilities I have to fulfill."

"Yeahhhhh," he whined, "but I don't _want_ you to have to fulfill those responsibilities."

"Ahhh, young love!" Kuro mused. "Phoe, dear, don't you remember when we used to act like that?"

"Kuro, please..."

Naru's eyes narrowed. "Young love you say?" Ori and Sein froze. "Well, I suppose that is a rather good analogy."

"Y-Yeah! Great analogy!" Ori nervously said. "Hey, so, me and Sein are just gonna get going to the Spirit Tree okay bye!" And with that, the two took off in the direction of the Hollow Grove.

"Well, we must be going as well," Kuro said with a smirk, letting Ku and Shriek gently hop off her back. "Me and Phoenix have lotsto catch up on, after all."

"R-Right!" The fire bird let his passengers off as well, and the two massive birds took flight towards the Forlorn Ruins.

Naru clapped her hands together. "Well, I suppose that now we can get going!"

Tok raised his wing. "Miss Naru?"

"Yes, Tok?"

"What analogy were you talking about?"

She chuckled. "There was no analogy, Tok. I was just making fun of them."

* * *

As he entered the clearing before the Spirit Tree, Ori slowed down and took a breath. "That was close."

"She knows," Sein panicked, "she knows and she's going to try and split us up."

Ori's eyes widened. "What, no she's not. She might be a little upset that we didn't tell her earlier, but she's not going to try and split us up."

"Yes she is," Sein said, panic slowly growing. "She's going to split us up, and she's not going to let you even enter the Hollow Grove ever again, and I'm never going to get to see you again, and-"

"Sein, calm down!" Ori grabbed the orb and held it to his chest. "Naru's not going to do any of that!"

"And how can you be so sure!" they shouted, before flinching and trying to escape his grasp. "See, I'm an awful partner, I shouldn't have-"

Ori gripped the orb tighter, and lightly kissed their top. "Nope. None of this self-deprecating nonsense. We're going to go through all the silly stuff that you just said, I'm going to explain why you're wrong about all of it, and I'm going to spend the rest of the day comforting you and making sure you know just how much I care about you. Okay?"

"But-but-"

"No buts," he kissed them again. "First of all: Naru's not going to split us up. You told me she's been trying to get you to tell me you liked me for ages; why would she suddenly change her view on you now?"

"...I-I guess that makes sense..."

"Exactly. Next, Naru not only _wouldn't_ try and stop me from entering the Hollow Grove, she _couldn't._ I'm way faster than her you dork. And don't try to use you forgetting about that to depreciate yourself! You're clearly panicking!"

They hesitated for a moment. "...I didn't know you knew what depreciate meant," they quietly teased.

"You taught me what it means, silly!"

"...Oh yeah, I did, didn't I?"

"Yep! See, you're so smart when you're not panicking! Anyways, you do realize that Naru isn't constantly awake, right? She wouldn't be able to stop us from meeting up and seeing each other when she's asleep."

"...huh. I guess you're right." 

"Of course I'm right!" He giggled, "now, what do you need me to do to help you be less hard on yourself?"

"What do-Ori, you don't have to-" He tapped them, and they went quiet.

"I know I don't have to. But I _want_ to."

"...Why?"

"Because I love you," he muttered, face staining crimson.

The orb shone brighter, "I-I love you too, Ori."

He smiled wide. "Nice. Now!" He hugged them tighter and kissed their top again. "I'm going to list off everything great about you. Tell me when you start feeling better!"

"Wh-Ori!"

The spirit laughed and kept the orb in his arms, staying true to his word and listing each and every last thing he viewed as great about them. Everything from parts of their personality to how important they had been in saving Nibel. He skipped nothing and the day eventually faded to night, yet he still kept listing things off, Sein long since having gone quiet in his arms, asking him to just keep talking. "And last but not least, you're so _brave!"_

They snorted, "I am _not_ brave, Ori."

"You were brave enough to ask me out." They hesitated.

"Well... I guess. But-"

He kissed them again. "What did I say about buts?"

"That I get kisses when I say it, and therefore I should say it as much as possible?"

His face turned bright red, like earlier in the day. "No! I mean-it's nice that you like my kisses that much, but no! No buts!"

If they had a face, they would be smirking. "But." Ori's cheeks puffed up, and he turned away from them.

"Are you two done?" They both jumped and looked at the Spirit Tree, only just know realizing that he probably heard and saw everything they did. "Not to interrupt, but we do have some things we need to get done."

"Right, sorry!" Sein squeaked. They floated up to Ori and rubbed against his cheek. "Thank you for spending time with me. I love you."

"Love you too," he murmured, kissing them lightly one last time for the night. "See you soon?"

"As soon as possible," they said, before floating up and into their perch among the Spirit Tree's branches as Ori walked away towards Sparrow's Nest.

Time to get to work.

* * *

Ori arrived to the owlets, Shriek, Gumo and Naru all staring at him. "Um... hi?"

Naru put her hands on her hips. "You're grounded."

"Alright..."

* * *

"This is nice," Kuro muttered, Phoenix leaning against her. "I missed this."

"I missed it too," he replied, sighing and sinking deeper into the goddess' feathers. "I'm... sorry I never visited."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "You were busy."

He sighed again, "still..."

Kuro shook her head and hugged him. "Oh, I missed you."

"I missed you too, Kuro."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and then they went hunting like responsible adults.


End file.
